Background

Rodel Tapaya was born on July 10, 1980 in Montalban, Rizal, Philippines.

Education

Rodel Tapaya completed intensive drawing and painting courses at Parsons School of Design in New York and the University of Helsinki in Finland. He also completed his studies at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.

Career

Rodel Tapaya is one of the most active artists in Southeast Asia today. His first group exhibition "Toys" was in 2002 at Ayala Museum in Makati, Philippines. His first solo exhibition "Balangkas" took place in 2004 at Boston Gallery in Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines.

At the heart of Rodel Tapaya’s work is his ongoing amalgamation of folk narrative and contemporary reality within the framework of memory and history. Utilizing a range of media - from large acrylic on canvasses to an exploration of under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing - Tapaya filters his observations of the world through folktales and pre-colonial historical research, creating whimsical montages of his characters.

Sometimes his characters appear in archetypes culled from pre-colonial historical research and recorded folktales from recent scholarship. "Rodel Tapaya: Folkgotten" was Tapaya's maiden solo show outside his home country which was organized by the Drawing Room Manila and Utterly Art Singapore in 2008. The exhibit launched Tapaya's direction in painting based on folk myths and narratives and signified a change of styles from his signature burlap paintings, a material which has gained some popularity and copied by other Filipino painters.

Each work has its origin in Tapaya’s reflections on a particular time or place that possesses an enduring resonance, from its correspondence with the formalistic and psychological implication of the grid in his earlier works to protracted ventures which excavate and interpret myth and folk aesthetics. Inherent in the work is a tension between objective investigations of art and the subjectivity of perception and experience, providing his work with an enigma that comes from the impossibility to paint a story without revealing inflections made by the painter’s hand.

Besides, Tapaya is one of Southeast Asia's most successful contemporary artist at auctions where his works are highly regarded.

Rodel Tapaya currently lives and works in Bulacan, Philippines. He is widely exhibited in cities in the Southeast Asian region as well as in Beijing, Berlin, New York and Tokyo.

Achievements

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  Rodel Tapaya is one of the most active and successful artists in Southeast Asia. His most notable works include "Deconstruction" (2001), "The Giant Watermelon" (2008) and "Cane of Kabunian, numbered but can not be counted" (2010).
  
  As a student Tapaya was a semi-finalist of the Metrobank Young Painters' Annual Art Competition. Tapaya also scored first place at the Shell National Students Art Competition in the Watercolor Category. In honor of his achievements, the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Benigno Simeon Aquino III, presented him with an Ani ng Dangal Award at the Malacanang Palace. In 2001 he won the Nokia Art Awards competed among young artists in the Southeast Asian region.
  
  Rodel Tapaya was also shortlisted four times to the Ateneo Art Awards in four separate years and won a jury prize to the Phillip-Morris Philippine Art Awards in 2007.
  
  In addition, he received the 2011 Signature Art Prize granted by the Asia-Pacific Breweries Foundation and the Singapore Art Museum. He was also among the Thirteen Artists Awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2012.
  
  

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Untitled

    2016

  • Untitled

    2015

  • The Girl Who Turned Into A Fish

    2011

  • Nang Makulong and Manok ni Mayor Kilabot

    2007

  • Protection in the Forest

    2013

  • Manama

    2012

  • Ground Breaking

    2014

  • Haircut Day

    2016

  • Untitled

    2006

  • Origin of the Mountains

    2009

  • Visiting Family Cand

    2008

  • Advice From Bathala

    2012

  • Adyos

    2007

  • The Young General

    2008

  • Visiting Fairy Land

    2008

  • She's from the Sky

    2013

  • Ngipin Ni Mabait

    2011

  • Ana, Mona, Lisa

    2008

  • Totoy Pusa

  • Kabayong Gigil

    2007

  • May Agimat sa Puso

    2009

  • Great Catch

    2013

  • Animal Rescue

    2010

  • Untitled

    2005

  • Big Fish

    2010

  • Passing by the Calm Waters

    2010

  • Untitled

    2009

  • Dalagang Filipina

    2011

  • The Giant Watermelon

    2008

  • The Fairy’s Flower Garden

    2015

  • Marriage of Gods

    2009

  • The Deer, the Snail and the Rattan Stories

    2009

  • Olivia

    2008

  • The Hunter’s Dilemma

    2008

  • The Invincible

    2009

  • Ang Espiya ni Pedroso

    2009

  • The wedding

    2007

  • Aran on Mount Chantog

    2009

  • The overseer's gaze

    2009

  • The legend of Sogsogot

    2009

References

• Rodel Tapaya
  2015